Loren,
I think it all boils down to basic blocking and tackling. Education on many levels is so crucial. I think out of all the marketing disciplines, email marketing is the most misunderstood, yet one of the most profitable.
Whether you "do" email marketing full time or wear it as a hat amongst other functions in an organization, you owe it to yourself, your company and your subscribers to be involved.
Thanks for the props too man.
Andrew

Fellow Deliverability.com blogger Andrew Kordek started a provocative conversation among a group of email marketers when he asked "If you had one wish in email marketing, what would it be?" Andrew's wish (education for marketers, ESPs and clients alike), which echoed Martin Luther King's "I Hav...

Fred,
Great post. One of the things that I do find interesting is that a lot of companies have put up preference centers over the course of the last 18 months, but fail to honor those preferences that the users have chosen. This especially rings true during the Holiday Season whereby I am now getting hit with emails once a day from organizations where I know had a preference center and they are failing to send me relevant content that I specifically asked them to send me.
Its great to build it and its great to continue the conversation with the customers, but the first thing that needs to happen is that companies need to honor the choices or the whole concept becomes obsolete.
Andrew

The preference center is a highly intriguing, untapped resource for Email Marketers and could be used in a variety of ways. It has the potential to establish critical ground rules with both newfound and dormant subscribers. When subscribers are awarded mission control to continuously manage th...

I saw the reports and the product itself today and can tell you that as a client side email marketer its pretty cool stuff. The ability to import the data into a data warehouse and use it to micro-segment is pretty incredible.
To me this opens up a new chapter in the ability for the marketer to gain visibility into their subscribers.
My only concern is how does an organization explain the data it captures from a privacy perspective. Organizations with strict privacy policies will need to carefully consider this.
Overall, I am excited to see how this rolls out.
Andrew

Here at Deliverability.com, we like to leak information to the world as we get it in hopes of spurring debate and helping educate folks interested in email marketing (and obviously deliverability) in general. As part of that, Pivotal Veracity unveiled its latest product announcement today in a s...

@alex and @Dj Whoa..for an OSU and Michigan guy to agree there will be riots in the streets in Columbus and Ann Arbor this evening. Bo and Woody are rolling over in their graves.
First off I am shocked that the both of you don't think that there is a lot of dialogue that happens in email. I think that there is more dialogue happening than you believe.
What about the use of preference data? Customer gives info..company responds
What about the use of behavioral data such as browse based email? Customer takes and action. (initiates a conversation or action) and company responds.
What about company's who actively promote their twitter feed for customers to engage in and use it for customer service? Certainly email is the catalyst for this dialogue to happen right?
What about the use of progressive profiling via a CRM system? Customer gives info either thru sales or some other means and company engages.
What about the use or transactional data? Customer buys and then company engages in a dialogue via email and provides a relevant base of communication?
What about B2B? You guys mention that you do your best to give me content so I will click and buy things..but B2B often does not work that way. Often, B2B email is about staying in front of the customer..keeping them warm on the bench about your organization. Customer responds by attending something, downloading something or engaging with the company some way. To me, that is a dialogue.
What about Google Wave that is coming? Certainly, there is a tremendous amount of collaboration centered in that tool and email is front and center in it. It is apparent to me that email, IM and social networking will collide.
All of the above may be crude or primitive forms of a dialogue..but they are a dialogue.
You guys are in the here and now..and while that is ok..you need to think about the future. Yes..inherently email has been known to be a part of marketing..but fellas times are changing and they are changing quickly. Email will always be the catalyst for companies to engage in a two way communication and the dialogue begins now...heck it began a few years ago and we don't even realize it. Email is not always about buying things and clicking..and the sooner you understand that and begin to preach it the better off people will be.
You need to believe that email HAS to be a dialogue and that is it no longer acceptable to think its all about buying things and clicking. B2b is living proof of that. B2C has a way to go..but every study I read shows that click rates, open rates and general engagement rates in email are declining..and why? To me, its people wanting to engage with the brands..the companies and their people.
12 months ago twitter or any social networking incorporation into email was virtually non-existent. Today its everywhere. I believe that there is a lot of dialogue in email...it may not be present in most programs yet..but its there. The sooner people realize that..and the sooner the thought leaders begin to talk about it, the more people will want to do it.
I consider you both to be tremendous thought leaders in this industry and I respect you immensely. People listen to you. Now think about the future of email and think how you guys as thought leaders will go out and preach that email NEEDS to be a dialogue in order for email programs to thrive. Believe in that email is not just about marketing. Believe that email is more than just about clicks and buying. Believe that email is more than just about sending relevant content. Believe that email can be a catalyst to a conversation for organizations.
Believe. Then try to convince one customer at a time. Do so and you will be rock stars.

The title of email marketing manager is obsolete in my book. To me the word marketing is a word which reeks with the act of engaging in a monologue with the customer. Wikipedia defines marketing from the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delive...

@Mark. Great feedback, but I look at the evolution of email over the last several years and wonder if things are shifting, why not shift with the times. Too often, email in the corporate culture is looked at as a profit/marketing center and not a place where they can engage in a dialogue with their customers. Email at its core is marketing yes, but there is a shift happening with people and they want to feel like companies are engaged with them.
They were once called stewardesses now they are flight attendants. They were mailmen..now postal worker. 10 years ago there wasn't a title called internet marketing specialist and who would have thought there would be titles out there called Director of Community.
All I am saying is that once organizations get that email is much more powerful than just selling things, then the title has to change.
Love the feedback...keep it coming.

The title of email marketing manager is obsolete in my book. To me the word marketing is a word which reeks with the act of engaging in a monologue with the customer. Wikipedia defines marketing from the AMA as "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delive...